Carbocationic polymerizations in general and living carbocationic polymerizations in particular are of great scientific and practical importance for the creation of useful materials. Living carbocationic polymerizations (LC+Ps) proceed in the absence of chain transfer and termination (collectively termed chain breaking) and lead to well-defined designed useful polymers. LC+Ps lead to predetermined degrees of polymerization (molecular weights), narrow molecular weight distributions, desirable end-groups, and sequential (block, graft, etc.) polymers. The mechanism of LC+Ps is well known in the art. (See, Designed Polymers by Carbocationic Macromolecular Engineering, by J. P. Kennedy and B. Ivan, Hanser pub, 1992, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety). The chemistry of initiation of cationic polymerizations is discussed in detail in Carbocationic Polymerization, by J. P. Kennedy and E Marechal, Wiley, 1982, pp. 81-116, and specifically that of LC+P, pp 9-31, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The initiator that is used world-wide for the production of well-defined telechelic PIBs (by LC+P of isobutylene) by academic and industrial investigators, is 5-tert-butyl-1,3-bis(1-chloro-1-methylethyl)benzene (abbreviated herein as HDCCl, for hindered dicumyl chloride):

5-tert-butyl-1,3-bis (1-chloro-1-methylethyl)benzene (HDCCl) Other initiators commonly used for the synthesis of well-defined telechelic PIBs (by LC+P of isobutylene) include those described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,733,998 to Kennedy et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 8,889,926 to Kennedy et al., the disclosure of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
The synthesis of HDCCl occurs in several steps and requires the use of an expensive starting material and costly reagents. (See, Wang, B., Mishra, M. K., Kennedy J. P., Polymer Bulletin, 17, 205 (1987), the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.) HDCCl in conjunction with Friedel-Crafts acid co-initiators, e.g., TiCl4, instantaneously initiates bi-directional LC+P of isobutylene. The bulky tert butyl group in HDCCl is necessary as it prevents unacceptable intramolecular aromatic alkylation by the tert cation that arises by the first incorporated isobutylene molecule; in other words, in the absence of the tert butyl group in HDCCl unacceptable facile zero order intramolecular aromatic alkylation by the first aliphatic tert cation would occur leading to an indanyl ring plus a proton as shown in Scheme 1 below.
If such intramolecular aromatic alkylation occurs, which is in fact a chain transfer reaction, LC+P cannot take place because the expelled proton (see last formula in the above equation) would initiate polymerization and would lead to polymers with useless “sterile” H— head group.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a low cost LC+P initiator that in conjunction with one or more Friedel-Crafts acid co-initiators, such as TiCl4, initiates LC+P of isobutylene.